Cassytha filiformis |
Cassytha |
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devil's gut, love-vine |
cassytha |
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Stems | twining, pale green to yellow-green to orange, filiform, glabrous or pubescent. |
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Leaves | alternate, ca. 1 mm. |
reduced to minute scales, spirally arranged, glabrous or pubescent. |
Inflorescences | spikes, rarely reduced to single flower. |
spikes [panicles or racemes], rarely reduced to single flower. |
Flowers | bisexual, subtended by ciliate bract and bracteoles; outer 3 tepals 0.1-1 mm, similar to bracteoles, inner 3 tepals 1-1.8 mm, apex incurved; pistil 1.2 mm, glabrous. |
bisexual, sessile or shortly pedicellate, subtended by bract and 2 bracteoles; tepals persistent at apex of accrescent floral tube that surrounds fruit, greenish white or whitish, outermost row similar to bracts, innermost row larger; stamens 9 (or 6), anthers 2-locular, anthers of outer 6 stamens introrse, of inner 3 extrorse; staminodes 3 (or 6); ovary globose. |
Drupe | to 7 mm diam. 2n = 48. |
black, globose, enclosed in floral tube, remnants of perianth apical. |
Vines | , parasitic, with threadlike stems. |
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Cassytha filiformis |
Cassytha |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–summer (May–Jul). | |
Habitat | Coastal vegetation | |
Elevation | 0-20 m (0-100 ft) | |
Distribution |
FL
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North America; Tropical and subtropical regions; mostly Australia; a few in Africa |
Discussion | Cassytha filiformis is a very distinctive plant that can be confused only with Cuscuta, a vining parasite of the Cuscutaceae. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species ca. 17 (1 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. |
Parent taxa | Lauraceae > Cassytha | Lauraceae |
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 35. (1753) | Osbeck: in C. Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 35. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 22. 1754 (as "Cassyta") |
Web links |